Over the course of the past 25 years, numerous technologies has been associated with major disruption in the US news industry. The advent of the World Wide Web was one of the first major technologies to impact the news industry, followed by Web 2.0 technologies, social media and mobile platforms. Using extensive collections of archived Web data, this talk presents research on the evolution of the traditional print newspaper industry into an online news ecosystem by examining change across the news media system. A series of snapshots are examined, including the emergence of online news on the early Web, and the more recent efforts of the online news industry to adapt to mobile and social platforms.

Findings from this research underscore the stark differences in the structure of early online news media as compared to the industry as it stands today, but also point to the impact of critical resources (employees, access to knowledge, capital) on the growth of online news media and the capacity to adapt. This research is one of the first studies to leverage a large dataset of archived Web pages in order to analyze the adaptation process. More than 5 million webpages, covering more than 25,000 unique websites, were analyzed as part of this research.

Thus, in addition to discussing changes in the news industry, this lecture further outlines the challenges and opportunities for using archival Internet data in research. The study of news media provides a strong case study for the importance of Web archiving, and the research presented demonstrates the validity of social science research that incorporates archival Web analysis as a core tool for digital scholarship.

Matthew S. Weber Biography:

Matthew Weber is an Assistant Professor in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, and Co-Director of Rutgers’ NetSCI Network Science research lab. Matthew’s research examines organizational change and adaptation in response to new information communication technology. His recent work focuses on the transformation of the news media industry in the United States in reaction to new forms of media production. This includes a large-scale longitudinal study examining strategies employed by media organizations for disseminating news and information in online networks. He is also leading an initiative to provide researchers with access to the Internet Archives (archive.org) in order to study digital traces of organizational networks. Matthew utilizes mixed methods in his work, including social network analysis, archival research and interviews. His research has been published in leading academic journals, including Journal of Communication and American Behavioral Scientist, and his work is supported by a number of organizations, including the National Science Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation. Matthew received his PhD in 2010 from the Annenberg School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Southern California.

This event is open to the public. Attendees without a valid GWorld card will need to show a government-issued ID at the front desk to sign into the Gelman building.

Dean of Libraries and University Librarian John Zenelis has announced that, due to the exceptionally high caliber of the applicant pool’s research proposals, the Fenwick Fellow committee selected two recipients to receive the award for 2016-2017. The new Fenwick Fellows are Dr. John G. Turner, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Dr. Edward Rhodes, Professor of Government and International Affairs, Schar School of Policy and Government.

Professor Turner’s research proposal, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Making of American Liberty, is a current book project under contract with Yale University Press and set for publication in 2020, the four hundredth anniversary of the Mayflower landing. The project uses the history of the Plymouth Colony Pilgrims to explore themes such as religious persecution and refugees, religious and political liberty, and conflict between Christian purity and religious pluralism.

With his project, Digital Curatorship of Historical Documentation: The Rise and Fall of Liberal Republican Foreign Policy, 1920-1932, Professor Rhodes anticipates creating a fully searchable digital collection of primary documents dealing with American foreign policy during the 1920-1932 period; an edited and annotated compilation of key documents from this period, designed for pedagogical purposes as well as research, and a scholarly monograph documenting and explaining the intellectual roots and principle policy features of American foreign policy during this period.

Professors Turner and Rhodes will present the results of their work in spring 2018 at the annual Fenwick Fellow Lecture hosted by the University Libraries.

The Fenwick Fellowship is awarded annually to a Mason tenured, tenure-track, or multi-year appointment term faculty member to pursue a research project that uses and enhances the University Libraries’ resources while advancing knowledge in his or her field. The winning proposal(s) is recommended to the Dean of Libraries and University Librarian by a six-member selection committee including three instructional faculty members and three librarians, with one of the Associate University Librarians serving as administrative coordinator. The recipient(s) is provided with a fully equipped and furnished research office in Fenwick Library and an award of $5,000 to support the recipient’s research project. The terms for this year’s Fellows begin on August 29, 2016 and end on August 11, 2017.

Gelman, Eckles and VS&TC Libraries will be closed on Monday, September 5 for the Labor Day holiday.

Gelman will close at 10pm on Sunday, September 4 and reopen at 7am on Tuesday, September 6. No 24-hour access is available during this time. Eckles & VS&TCL will maintain regular hours on Sunday, September 4 and Tuesday, September 6.

Looking for a secure spot to store small items while you are on campus? Gelman Library offers lockers on the 4th & 5th floors for reservation by any GW student.

The lockers on the 4th and 5th floors are located in the hallway past the bathrooms and available to any GW student. Lockers located within the Graduate Student Reading Room (Gelman 503) are available only to GW graduate students. All lockers are reserved on a “first-come / first-served” basis and rent for $35 per semester (Fall, Spring, and Summer). Locker rentals begin on the first day of classes for the semester and end on the last day of scheduled finals of the same semester. Students may rent lockers per semester or for the academic year (a total of 3 semesters, Fall, Spring and Summer).

To apply for a locker, please select a locker by taking the slip posted on the desired locker and complete the online request form (you must have the locker number to complete the form). A library staff member will contact you for an appointment to make the applicable payment and issue you a combination lock for the requested locker.